Ship of Heroes Looks Like a Worthy Successor to City of Heroes

City of Heroes remains one of those games that I would very gladly play again, and play almost exclusively, if given the chance. All these years later, we still remember it fondly, and many of us still have some resentment over how it shut down.

I have always loved comics and superheroes, and when City of Heroes arrived on the scene, I jumped on it right at launch, playing daily until it was shut down 8 years later. There was a huge effort on the part of loyal fans to bring the game back, but that has never happened (rumours of private servers notwithstanding….) There are several successor games in the works, however, and the one that stands out for me right now is Ship of Heroes.

When I first heard of Ship of Heroes, I honestly thought it was a joke. I had been following the various other projects to one degree or another, but SoH appeared seemingly out of nowhere. I was the first person I know of to start sharing news of it to all the various CoH groups I was a part of. Most of the people I shared it with at that time took a similar view: it had to be a fake.

Over the past several months, however, we have seen that not only is it a legitimate game in development, but that it seems to capture the spirit of City of Heroes quite well. It is a bit early to know for sure, of course, but what I have seen and heard so far leaves me feeling pretty confident that this will become the type of game that I will play for hours at a time. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing.

I look forward to having a game that I love so much that I could lose myself in it. It has been a long time since I experienced that. It will also likely see me neglecting all my other games though, which I have mixed feelings about. Plus, these days I have much less gaming time. Still, I think it could be fun to play with my kids. My wife and I played CoH together for the longest time, and our elder son was just starting to play when it shut down. He never really got to experience how fun it could be. Maybe now, he and his brother can join me and my wife to fight crime as a family!

We’ll need more computers though!

I will also have to start writing again, as I am the type who loves to flesh out his characters with supporting fiction. I wrote two novellas and countless short stories with my characters and the character of those I played with. Although it could be akward given the setting, I am hoping I will find a way to continue the tales of Maiden Canada, the Faceless One, Doctor Valiant, and all the others.

Ship of Heroes, you can’t come out soon enough.

Are you looking forward to Ship of Heroes, or one of the other successor games? What are your favourite memories from City of Heroes?